It's that time of year again

Here in Central Florida, birds are starting to nest and raise the next generation.  Their colors get brighter, feathers get fancy and they show off to attract a mate (and photographers!).

Great Egret displayGreat Egret display

One place to see this is at Gatorland.  Wild birds nest above the alligator ponds there because gators keep predators such at raccoons and snakes away from the nests.  You can take advantage of the early entry program to photograph when the light is good and  get close to tolerant birds that don’t mind people on the boardwalk.

It’s early in the season now and Great Egrets are the most active.  Later in the Spring, you can see Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Cormorants, Anhingas, Wood Storks, Cattle Egrets and maybe a few others nesting too.  Here’s a Great Egret on her nest with 3 young chicks. I’d guess these three are less than a week old. And it looks like they’ve just been fed, since none are squawking for more to eat.

Moe, Larry, Curly, and MomMoe, Larry, Curly, and Mom.  This is a two frame composite with one focused on the chicks and the other on Mom.

There are other things to photograph there, too.

Happy GatorHappy Gator.  Just what a photographer wants:  a smiling model in good light!

Gatorland is one of my favorite places to photograph.  You can read through the articles I’ve written about it at this link.  I think you should go – you’ll have fun and get a some good photos.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

6 thoughts on “It's that time of year again

  1. Hi Ed. Did you use a tripod for the 2 image composite? I had never really thought of doing that for birds.
    I bought my pass Thursday afternoon.

    1. Hi Jim,

      No, I didn’t use a tripod for that image. I just held the camera in landscape orientation and took the two frames quickly. The bird weren’t moving, so it worked well in this case. I try this often to increase depth of field. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but I’m no worse off.

      Maybe I’ll get to see you over there one day soon.

      Ed

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